Project house hell, overdoing it edition

We've been house hunting for a while, looking for a bigger place with some garage space. I had hoped to get closer to work - we live about 8 miles from my office now. Well, the day after tomorrow we close on our latest folly. It is not closer, actually it's almost 10 miles from work if you can imagine that ridiculous commute. And what did we end up with?

It's rough and needs some serious attention. It needs a new roof, downspouts, ceilings in some rooms, all carpeting needs replaced, one new a/c unit, etc. It adds up fast. But the price was right for what all we got. What all is that you ask?

3.5 acres, 3300sf ranch with full basement, 2 car attached garage, 3 car detached garage with an apartment wrapped around it. All sitting at the entrance to a bike path, across a side street from a park with nice fishing lake (spring fed former quarry), in a safe area with a good school district.

There should be some fun stuff with the house soon. The first priority is getting it move-in ready which I hope to have done in 60 days. (Our bank wants to see it done in 60 days.) Beyond that what will be done to it is unknown. Our current house will go on the market halfway through the renovations. After moving I'll have a short time to breathe, maybe, before our first child is born. Then all bets are off.

What a year. Do you think this will impact my racing time at all??

Congrats that rocks. Now build a pond.

Thats awesome. You can plant a big garden and then have a great garage.

Nice! I would love that much acreage, and a shop. That's a great project to tackle.

Colour me green with envy!

Especially the detached garage!!!

Very cool. I am intrigued by the added apt. I am guessing that means income producing property?!

Very nice!!

I am jelly. I would love the extra acreage, at least until it was time to cut the grass.

I assume this is by Antrim Park?

If you rent out the apartment does the tenant get to use the detached garage?

Very nice!

But, um... 10 miles is a commute? Oy - that's almost next door!

My commute is 10 miles and takes 30 minutes, I don't consider a 30 minute commute next door. It could be much worse I guess.

EvanB wrote: I assume this is by Antrim Park? If you rent out the apartment does the tenant get to use the detached garage?

1) yes, but 2) NOT A CHANCE HANDS OFF

Lesley, that was mostly a joke about my prior comments about long commutes. 10 miles is longer than I would like, the place I really fell in love with was 3 miles from work but it just ended up too expensive once I factored in remodeling the house and building a garage. I like driving but don't like commuting.

Evan, I'll have to have a get together once the place is up to speed and we're moved in. It's pretty cool.

I don't know if we'll be renting out the apartment, it might be cleaned up and used as a guest house / getaway thing. It all depends on how things shake out. It's surprising how many people have expressed interest in renting it though. They would need to be okay with me working on projects in the garage, occasionally late at night!

Nice. Too far north (eh) but very nice.

A couple of acres sounds really nice a lot of the time. I'd happily take a 10 mile commute for it.

EvanB wrote: My commute is 10 miles and takes 30 minutes, I don't consider a 30 minute commute next door. It could be much worse I guess.

Move out my way, it takes 45 minutes for me to go 7 miles at 7:15 in the morning, on a good day.

Congrats!!! Love it, and very jealous. Having just given up a mega size house on 3.5 acres for a small plot in a subdivision, I'm probably more jealous than anyone...but it's best for the family. Is that the bike path right behind the house?

You've got some serious mowable acrage. Invest in a nice zero turn...trust me. Either that or kill all the grass and make an autox course...

As for your 10 mile ride to work now, guess you'll have to work those skinny legs a bit harder. Just be careful how musclebound you get...you gotta be able to fit in that fancy race suit.

Congrats and enjoy!!! Hurry up and get it all done before your wife say "Honey...it's time".

Thanks!! The bike path is across the street out front. Behind the house is driveway then further behind it is a creek.

We're planning on a serious ZTR mower. I would love to get a diesel but it triples the price so we'll just live with high fuel consumption.

I met with the painter and gutter guy today, tomorrow is closing, day after that we're getting the cleanout people in and ripping out all the stinky carpet, padding, etc. The roofers are set. So much to plan still though! I would usually do a lot of this work myself but we managed to roll the cost of improvements into the loan which means the bank wants to see contractors doing it. Ahh well, at least that means it'll happen faster.

Fuel consumption on the mowers isn't all that bad. My ZTR was small, only 42" It was the Toro Timecutter 42xx, with a 19hp Kohler motor. It would cut my lawn in about 2 hours. Most of our lawn was flat grass, so I mowed at least 3.2 acres. A bigger one probably could have done it in 1.5 hours. I honestly never measured it, but it used about 2 gallons of gas for a full mow, maybe 2.5.

Cool.. I was planning on a 72" but it seems like you make a big jump in cost and weight to go from 62" to 72". So I'm planning on doing some shopping to see what the main difference is. It might be worth it to pay for the 10" of additional width. I'm hoping to get the main mowing down to an hour or so.

dculberson wrote: Do you think this will impact my racing time at all??

Not if you put a track in and invite us over for racing. Congrats!

Looks good, just needs a swimming pool

wearymicrobe wrote:

EvanB wrote: My commute is 10 miles and takes 30 minutes, I don't consider a 30 minute commute next door. It could be much worse I guess.

Move out my way, it takes 45 minutes for me to go 7 miles at 7:15 in the morning, on a good day.

coming from where I do, it's hard to comprehend something like that

I envy people who live in parts of the country where large houses and land are actually affordable.

In reply to Sky_Render:

I envy people that feel secure enough to buy instead of rent.

Did you just say riding lawn mower races? Because I'm pretty sure that's the fastest way to mow 3.5 acres.

wbjones wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote:

EvanB wrote: My commute is 10 miles and takes 30 minutes, I don't consider a 30 minute commute next door. It could be much worse I guess.

Move out my way, it takes 45 minutes for me to go 7 miles at 7:15 in the morning, on a good day.

coming from where I do, it's hard to comprehend something like that

Is out of control, there are days its faster for me to ride my bicycle then it is to drive. No lie once we had a major power outage and a power line fell across the main freeway split and it took 3.5 hours to go 4 miles. I parked the car at a friends and walked the rest of the way.

Also forgot to add congrats on the house. I love the shop apartment idea.

wearymicrobe wrote: Also forgot to add congrats on the house. I love the shop apartment idea.

Thanks, it was definitely a big plus to the property for me. Although I would have preferred 1600sf of shop instead of 800sf shop and 800sf apartment, but this is pretty neat. (And unfortunately built in segments so joining it all into shop isn't practical.)

Sky_Render wrote: I envy people who live in parts of the country where large houses and land are actually affordable.

"affordable" is a relative term. This is definitely not cheap and I just got back from wiring the down payment to the bank and feel a little overwhelmed. It is definitely another ball game compared to my usual comfort level.